MAYBUG

Some songs have nothing to do with their title. New Order were good at song title dissonance – ‘Fine Time‘, ‘The Perfect Kiss‘, even ‘Blue Monday‘ don’t have any direct relevance to their lyrical or musical content (ok, it’s an arguable point that New Order’s song titles always did carry at least an oblique reference to their song. But let’s leave that argument for the pub, shall we?). But today’s tip, ‘Early Morning is the Time’, not only has the song title in the lyrics, but is also the perfect soundtrack to being on a cliff top somewhere, watching the sun’s gentle ascent of the horizon in the wee small hours. Early morning is the time to listen to this.

Maybug, aka Chichester-based musician Joe Dunn, specialises in the most sparsely-orchestrated songs this side of a barbershop soloist. Accompanied by a gently-twanged electric guitar (I’m thinking humbuckers, Gibson, perhaps an ES-335?) and just the barest hint of reverb, he tells his tale of a moping companion, who’s apparently the recipient of some bad news – perhaps the death of a pet hamster, or a particularly red electricity bill. Still, he shows some admirable new-man restraint, promising to get out of her hair (because surely it is a her?), if she should request some peace and quiet (“and if you need a little time / just say, I won’t even ask you why”).

This is the most chilled-out of chill-out songwriting, so slow and deliberate that it’s almost stopped. Perfect, then, for that late-evening/early-morning session where nothing of volume above a whisper, or of a tempo greater than a giant tortoise’s heartbeat will do. At which point, Maybug will soothe your comedown away.

Words by Martin Sharman

Tipped by Joe Frankland